A gap year is the time taken off after completion of secondary education and before beginning higher education. Time-honored in practice, a gap year can be tricky, especially if the only one expecting a gap year is the student.
Such is the case in this trenchant mother-daughter saga. Cam Lightsey is buying dust ruffles and extra pillows for daughter Aubrey to take to college, while Aubrey has no intention of going, but there is more to the story. Martin, Cam's ex and Aubrey's father, left home when Aubrey was a toddler to join a religious cult filled with celebrities. The cult demanded no contact with nonbelievers, so Cam has raised Aubrey on her own, all the while torching for Martin.
Free-spirited Cam made the sacrifice to move to the 'burbs so Aubrey could get a better education. But she doesn't fit; she is definitely not one of the ladies who lunch. Cam is a lactation consultant, and loves her work, while the suburban mamas in her ken would rather not talk about it, thank you.
Aubrey has always been a good kid--grinding out good grades, staying out of trouble--and she's just about had it with that program. She is sick of being a band geek, wearing a really stupid hat and waiting, waiting for something like real life to begin. On a stupefyingly hot day, while at band practice, she faints on her way to get a drink and is revived by the quarterback hero--and throws up all over him. He is Tyler Moldenhauer, complete with bad teeth and a mysterious past, living in the coach's garage and, for some reason, he's interested in Aubrey. So begins her real life. Then, Aubrey's father contacts her on Facebook and that real life kicks into high gear.
Told in alternating chapters by Cam and Aubrey, the story takes in Aubrey's entire senior year. Cam grows more and more desperate for reconnection with her daughter, while Aubrey is spending all her free time with Tyler. Bird (The Boyfriend School) does a masterful job of telling us just enough about Tyler, Cam's worries, Aubrey's discovery of her self and her father to keep us wondering how it will all turn out. Martin, the wild card, returns; Aubrey disappears on the day she is supposed to leave for college--and the game's afoot, leading to a surprising conclusion. --Valerie Ryan
Shelf Talker: A trenchant mother-daughter saga, with conflict about college attendance, a boyfriend, an absent father and a mother's desire to raise her child right.